‘Frances Ha,’ ‘Hyde Park on Hudson’ and more set for 39th Telluride Film Festival

MONTROSE, Colo. – I’ve just landed at the airport and gotten a look at the fresh-off-the-presses release announcing the line-up for the 39th annual Telluride Film Festival. As I await the shuttle into Telluride for my fourth-straight SHOW, and as many of my Los Angeles brethren board the charter flight into Montrose here, let’s dig in and see what’s in store.

As is custom, Telluride withholds its line-up until the day before the festival really kicks off, but in the weeks leading up to the fest, people are talking and titles start to trickle out. A number of films have been expected presentations for a while now. Some respect the festival’s wishes and keep mum about it online. Others don’t.

The only big early get for the festival (though others may come in the form of TBAs) appears to be Roger Michell’s “Hyde Park on Hudson,” which is set for an official Toronto world premiere next week. Focus might find some performance love on the circuit for the film and this is a nice place to get some word out on it at the start of the fall festival circuit.

As for docs, Liz Garbus’s “Love, Marilyn,” a star-studded reading of private writings and musings discovered in a pair of boxes at the home of Marilyn Monroe’s acting coach nearly 50 years after her death, will preview here before moving on to Toronto. Ditto Ken Burns’s “The Central Park Five” (co-directed by daughter Sarah and her husband David McMahon), examining the 1989 case of five black and Latino teenagers who were wrongfully convicted of raping a white woman in New York’s Central Park. There’s also Sarah Polley’s “Stories We Tell,” investigating the secrets behind a family of storytellers. Each will move on to Toronto after playing here.

In the tribute arena, Mads Mikkelsen will keep a nice stride going after his Best Actor win at Cannes with a Telluride tribute and his films “The Hunt” (for which he won the Cannes honor) and “A Royal Affair” (also set for Toronto) on the slate. It’s certainly a unique choice. Even if Mikkelsen has been around for a long time, he’s only lately become recognizable to US audiences (after Hollywood stints in “Casino Royale,” “Clash of the Titans” and “The Three Musketeers”).

Meanwhile, it’s long been rumored that Marion Cotillard would get the medallion treatment here, and now it’s official. It’s a good year to do it. “The Dark Knight Rises” has just finished burning up the box office, while Jacques Audiard’s “Rust and Bone” could land her an Oscar nomination for Best Actress later in the year. The latter, which Guy called “a remarkable exercise in brute sentimentality and unwashed romance” at Cannes, is set to play Telluride this year with a typically full stable of Sony Pictures Classics selections. Director Roger Corman will also receive a tribute.

Speaking of which, Michael Barker and Tom Bernard’s 20-year-old company once again has quite the presence and will hold its annual Saturday night dinner with talent on hand. In addition to the aforementioned “At Any Price” and “Rust and Bone” we’ll get Cannes carry-over and Palme d’Or winner “Amour” from Michael Haneke (he missed the trip in 2009 with “The White Ribbon”) and Pablo Larraín’s “No.” In addition there is one more recent acquisition from the company on the docket: Dror Moreh’s Shin Bet documentary “The Gatekeepers.” I was hoping for Robert Redford’s “The Company You Keep,” which the studio recently acquired. It would have been neat to see Redford in the Telluride environment. Oh well.

The Weinstein Company is here with only one title, Cannes delight “The Sapphires.” I’m told they tried to get “The Master” up here, but logistics made it pretty difficult. Paul Thomas Anderson already appears to be chafing at the idea of a festival circuit launch (hence the constant pop-up screenings for his film, which he likely wanted to show up at Fantastic Fest in Austin first, just like “There Will Be Blood” five years ago). That’s a bummer for those of us only doing Telluride, but Guy will have the first word on it out of Venice soon enough.

“Silver Linings Playbook” was also a distinct possibility at one point (talent couldn’t make the journey), while “Django Unchained” is obviously still in the cutting room. So Harvey is basically just testing the waters on Wayne Blair’s “feelgood Aussie musical,” as Guy described it at Cannes; it may even end up being held for a 2013 release at the end of the day. I would have liked to see Andrew Dominik’s “Killing Them Softly” here, but, alas, it’s not on the schedule.

Other little odds and ends include Sally Potter’s “Ginger and Rosa” with Elle Fanning and Alice Englert and Ariel Vromen’s “The Iceman” with Michael Shannon and Winona Ryder (very excited for this one — Shannon is a national treasure). Meanwhile, a few other films looking to peek out here first before moving on to the rest of the fall festival circuit include Noah Baumbach’s “Frances Ha” and Deepa Mehta’s “Midnight’s Children.”

UPDATE: The LA Times has broken the news some of us have known all week, that Ben Affleck’s “Argo” will get a world premiere here. I guess they were given permission to do so, but anyway, yes, that’s one of the Sneak Previews/TBAs hinted at above. Hopefully more are in store.

Check out the full line-up for the 39th annual Telluride Film Festival below.

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““Argo” will officially have its world premiere next week at the Toronto International Film Festival, so the screening in Telluride is being billed as a sneak peek. Affleck directed the film, which is based on a true story about Hollywood’s role in rescuing a small group of Americans who were caught up in the 1979 takeover of the U.S. Embassy in Tehran.”

By: KristopherTapley

08.30.2012 @ 8:00 PM

Indeed, that’s a fact. I guess they were given the go-ahead to break that though the rest of us kept mum about it like good boys and girls.

Kris you gotta bring us word on MIDNIGHT’S CHILDREN! That book is unreservedly one of the most monumental pieces of literature ever written. The film will not live up simply because of how great the book is. But let us know what you make of it.

By: BJT

08.30.2012 @ 8:39 PM

Hi Kris,

How does the line-up feel to you compared to previous years?

Just reading the list it seems to less exciting in terms of new high-profile movies (although I would still probably cut off a couple of toes to get the opportunity to see be there), but does that come across differently from inside the bubble?